I was down in Adelaide for a  meeting on  Wednesday and it was cold, wet and miserable.  Here in the north we  get rain, but nothing in comparison to Adelaide, or, indeed,

the lower parts of the State.  Despite the weather we had a good, productive meeting and a very interesting presentation by the Unitarian  Druze  Community. Dr. Klee Benveniste, of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation was invited to make a presentation at the next meeting.  Dr. Klee declined  since the next meeting will be on the 8th October, which is the beginning of Sukkot – a very busy time for all families within the community. She did, however, agree to  make a presentation at the first meeting of the new year.

My son was part of a tour through Spain and Morocco and  in their itinerary was a visit to Casablanca. Also they were to have lunch at “Ricks” but they arrived there during Ramadan and all places were closed – actually the Western Owned places were not,  so they had to go to  McDonalds. Halfway  around the world and he has lunch at Maccas  :o)  Anyway, he’s out of Morocco and I believe he is in Lisbon for the next two days – Salamanca, Fatima, Madrid and that’s the end of the tour. He then heads off to Rome and a tour of Italy.  After Italy, Berlin, then Munich and a tour  of Bavaria. He’s a busy wee boy  :o)

When the weather permits we are still working on the clearing of the growth at the other house. It’s a mess. I think the owner had plans to look after things and control them because we have discovered steel supports and training wires, which, do not do a lot of good to the brush cutters. We’ve had to go in there with bolt cutters and try to take down the wire we can reach/ At the moment, because of the weather, not a lot is being done/ We probably wont get a lot done this week either. I haven’t got much done in the garden either, which, by the way, has become  weed infested with all the inclement weather we have had of late. Also it has been very cold and damp into the bargain.

Had an email from John in Rome and he says that he is not impressed. The hotel is good and he is only about five minutes walk from  the city center and fifteen minutes from the Vatican. He says that everything is depressed and unkempt looking and the famous Trevi Fountain is covered in scaffolding. The poor quality of the water has caused a fair amount of damage.  He believes that Casablanca in Morocco was much nicer looking – and cleaner. Tomorrow he starts his tour and he will be in Rome, North Italy and Austria. Me?? I’ll just be glad to have him back home safe and sound.

The man is sleeping a lot but I believe he is comfortable enough and the three inches of foam is helping. When he is awake he is very lively and active and he eats like a horse. Although, he is still OCD with his

wandering around my legs three times before he eats. I also find that the little platform I made for his food dish is helping – not having to bend down so much and I still hand feed him his stick treat, which I break up into little pieces for him. I know, I’m a sook  :o)

I couldn’t take a video of the rain and the raindrops don’t really show up in a photograph, but at least you can see the effects of the rain, so that should help to remind you (CDL) of what rain looks like. All of these photographs – and a bunch more – were taken during my recent visit to Adelaide. You have no idea the looks I got doing this – I mean who else but an idiot will walk out of  shelter to take photographs of rain and wet streets.   Oh wait – he must be one of those country bumpkins from up north!!! Although, this particular country bumpkin spent half his life growing up in a city that was older. bigger, bussier than Adelaide  but there you are, that’s in the past. But take heart, in a few short months, you will be into your Fall and we will be heading towards our summer and temperatures of 100 plus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is simple to wish all my American Friends a very happy 4th July.

 

 

 

Golleee… First time at a new groomer and what does he do – well,  he pees on her!! Goodness me, I didn’t know where to look. I was so embarrassed. Still, she took it in good part, put him in the play-pen and mopped the floor, then washed her hands and arms. He was crying a little when I left him but that was an hour ago and she hasn’t called  so everything must be ok. I go and collect him at 11am.  He is sleeping a lot at the moment and last night he slept with me. Heck he must be unwell because generally he is an independent little character and wont sleep on the bed with me, preferring instead to be in his own bed. Just been up to collect him and he is looking good. I asked the girls and they said that he had been good and he wandered around with the other dogs until his legs started giving away so they put him back in the play-pen. Overall, however – apart from the accident this morning- he was very good and they would love to have him back again. So I am quite happy and a bit more relaxed now. For the first time in forever, he came to bed with me. We slept  until 4am when a noise woke me up and I discovered he was missing. Put the light on and had a look but couldn’t find him. He had, I discovered, fallen out of the back of the bed at the wall side and got stuck under the bed. Once I got him out, we went back to bed and he slept in my arm with his head on my shoulder. Pretty cool, yes!!

Well!!! That didn’t last long! Took him through to the room again last night and did he set up a ruckus. He lay there  for all of two minutes before barking and demanding to be returned to his own bed – so that’s what I did.   Oh well, at least it was one night. Chienne, on the other hand, decided to take advantage of the situation and curled up at the bottom of the bed. I was going to move her, then decided not to, so that’s where she slept all night.

In a post I read recently the question was asked “Why do you Blog?” In my case I started a number of years ago in the old MySpace. There were no followers and in essence it was really written for one person. That changed in two ways,  the person moved away and we lost contact and MySpace changed to a  complete music site and I left. I did have an account here but I never used it, then one day I thought I would give it a whirl and here we are, three years later and we haven’t really changed all that much. Having said that, I also have to say that I have met some lovely people, who have made me laugh, who have made me cry, who have made me think, who have offered advice and who have made me feel that this is all worthwhile. In another recent post there was talk about camping as a young girl and it made me think when we used to go on family camping holidays in the Highlands of Scotland;  the big ex-army Bell Tent that dad got from the Army Surplus store,  for mum and the girls and the  divided  tent for me, dad and generally my cousin . My uncle Stirling and his family sometimes came up with us and stayed for a few days. I nearly drowned one time and my cousin swam out to save me. She was always my favourite cousin after that. We didn’t use gas, everything was cooked on an open fire –  my dad, me, David, my cousin and my Uncle Stirling all went out on  wood collecting trips. There was a forest close by so we went there but my dad made us aware of the rules – we only collect fallen or dead wood – never touch anything that’s green. When we had collected all we needed

for a couple of days we selected two large branches and made a  stretcher , tied it all together and  David and I had the great pleasure of carrying everything  back to the campsite. And the fishing –  the fishing was just out of this world. We didn’t own a boat but fishing by the side of the loch was  good and the rainbow trout were plentiful. We were seven miles from Lochearnhead and nine miles from St. Fillians, and the butcher, the grocer and the  baker vans all  stopped each day,  and each day we went to the farm and bought the milk from the farmer AND it was unpasteurized AND I am still alive. We also bought out eggs from the farm.

Been kind of busy. As you know the Man has arthritis and Herself and I decided that it must be  a bit painful for him to jump up and down the steps when he wants to go out – so – I built him a ramp. It wouldn’t win any prizes but is strong enough for the two dogs to use and to ensure that he does not slip on the hardboard, I have  covered the structure in the remains of an old carpet that I cut down to size. He is using it so I think he likes it.